You can't fail a BFR, but it is possible that you may not pass it. For me, I wasn't too keyed up about taking it -as Ron told me, it is designed to be a learning experience rather than a testing experience.
We met at the field and discussed issues that were mainly related to aeronautical decision making. As Ron said, and I whole-heartedly agree, knowing all the stuff about airspace and procedures is just fine but the FAA doesn't require very much training related to decision making. And in soaring, a decision you made 5 minutes ago can have some very dire consequences.
I've flow power *some* -about 130 hours worth, but from my point of view, the most important part of flying is the decisions that you make. In fact, piloting an aircraft differs most from driving a car in this respect. Decisions you make in the pre-flight, cruise, and landing phase all have a huge influence on the successful outcome of a flight.
Skill-wise, I'd rate myself at the bottom of the average scale for skills. Pilots are like anyone else, some are much more naturally inclined to excel at the stick and rudder skills and for some it just doesn't come as naturally. For me, it's not so much that I'm a poor pilot, I'm just not a hot shot ace like some of the glider Gods at the field. Of course, if I thought I was not capable of flying, I would stop. So, maybe it's not quite as bad as I'm making it out.
Anyhow, I try to compensate for my average-ness by ensuring I don't get into situations that require heroic saves and incredible pilot skills. Because most people don't have those -that's why they are heroic and incredible. Maybe I do and don't know it. But I'm not intending to find out. I fly for fun and therefore I fly conservatively.
After our discussion about issues that were of concern to me - low level spins and how they develop, landing to the north, how far one can safely stray from the field and still count on returning and so on, we headed out to an ASK-21 for the first flight. Ron asked me if I'd flown from the back before and I told him I'd only done it once and would like to try. I got in the back, we hooked up, and off we went.
There was a light west wind that pulled us to the left of the tow plane. I was concentrating on keeping the wings level as we pulled left. I couldn't really see the tow plane until we were kind of far out of position, then I didn't apply enough correction to arrest the drift. I reached for the tow release as Ron kicked in a little more rudder and stopped the drift. The rest of the tow and flight went fine, with me a little embarrassed at not acting quick enough.
On landing, I realized I had probably been landing with a bit too little energy all along (see my previous posts on 'plopping it in'. We then switched over to the Schweizer 2-33 to land down at the Elmira airport since I'd never landed there before. We took a handheld radio along and I called the tower as we approached their airspace. As Ron had told me, there was plenty of room to land -and there was. Wow! Landing at Harris Hill is like putting it down on an aircraft carrier compared to Elmira. We could easily have gotten low on our base leg and landed across the airport without and worries at all.
After we landed, the tow plan came down from Harris Hill and picked us up. We made my second unassisted takeoff (where you have one wing on the grass and the tow plane pulls you along until it comes off the ground), headed up to Harris Hill and landed on the runway there.
That was it. Now I'm certified for two more years of flight on my own. It hardly seems like it's been two years since I earned my glider rating. It's more of a challenge than it ever was before as I'm trying to fly more smoothly and professionally than I have in the past.
Next year - I'll go for my commercial ticket so I can fly passengers!
